Lakewood Pathology Associates announced that it will adopt a new name, PLUS Diagnostics, to better reflect its position as a leading national provider of anatomic pathology and diagnostic services. PLUS, which is an acronym for Pathology Laboratory of the United States, also represents the company’s exceptional customer service capabilities.

"Our new name - particularly the word, PLUS, embodies our company’s commitment to provide our customers with innovative and specialized services," said Doug Berg, chief executive officer, Lakewood Pathology Associates. "We are constantly looking at new ways to enhance our testing processes and procedures to ensure we are providing clients with superior diagnostic results. As a result, we have attracted customers from across the country and transformed Lakewood Pathology from a regional laboratory specializing in

urology into a national anatomic pathology leader offering a range of multi-specialty services."

Lakewood Pathology has achieved record sales in 2008 and year-over-year growth of more than 100 percent. Earlier this year, the company made a multi-million dollar investment to enhance its laboratory operations, expand its team of pathologists and introduce new services, including a national gastrointestinal (GI) offering. It is continuing to boost its diagnostic capabilities by implementing advanced digital and image analysis technologies, as well as additional connectivity options to support the national movement to electronic health records (EHRs).

"Doug and his executive team have done an outstanding job of introducing new initiatives that have enabled the company to rapidly grow and attract new customers," said Tim Brodnik, lead director, Lakewood Pathology. "With the company’s focus on customer service and continued expansion into new areas of diagnostic testing, it has tremendous opportunities to further expand its leadership position in the exciting and fast-growing anatomic pathology industry. PLUS Diagnostics is a name that is representative of what the company is today and more importantly, what it will become in the future."

"We have built a world-class team of highly talented and experienced leaders that has very quickly achieved our goal of establishing Lakewood as a national anatomic pathology leader," added Eric Lev, a Lakewood Pathology board member and principal with Water Street Healthcare Partners, a private equity firm specializing in health care. "We are now focused on the company’s next phase of growth, which is to further advance its leadership position into additional specialty diagnostic services, particularly hematology/oncology."

Lakewood will officially adopt its new name, PLUS Diagnostics, August 4, 2008.